Cornie Q's - kegging a flat stout

[lancsSteve]

Have fianlly got together almost all of my cornie setup - have a midget widget (mixed gas) and pressure gauge/handle and widget holder. Getting cornie from Norm arriving tomorrow with the two disconnects and pipes. Have a dalex tap as well.

I also have a keg of lovely-tasting malted oat stout, but it's really quite flat, think pressure barrel wasn't too pressure-holding. So planning to put this into the cornie with mixed gas and dispense it with all the flavour and hopefully a bit of a head!

QUESTIONS:
What pressure do I need to get it up to/keep it at?
Any tips/suggestions on transferring from barrel to cornie (obviously avoid aeration but anything else)?
Is it transportable once kegged as hopefully all settled in the pressure barrle - though had that in the car the other day so not so sure if sediment has kicked up...
How best to clean cornie before first use?

Read and think I followed guide here http://www.ebrew.com/primarynews/intro_keg_system.htm but any further guides/pointers welcomed...

[jonnyhop]

What pressure do I need to get it up to/keep it at?

I don't have a dial for the pressure, just add/release it until I feel happy. I add a bit of gas every day for the first week then go for the odd test. The main point of the corny (as well as not bottling) is that fizzyness is adjustable.#

Is it transportable once kegged as hopefully all settled in the pressure barrle - though had that in the car the other day so not so sure if sediment has kicked up...

Try and leave it in the same place as long as you can for the best results. If you have to move it, you have to move it. homebrew doesn't tend to like being shook up.

How best to clean cornie before first use?

Clean with boiling water generally, giving a proper scrub every few uses. Mine was leaking slightly then after some excellent advice from this form I took off the poppets, boiled them for 10 mins and everything was fine. So probably worth a good scrub every once in a while, depending on how quick you drink it.

Jonny

[jonnyhop]

How best to clean cornie before first use?

Just re-read this - check with norm but he sent mine fully sanitized so I just rinsed it with a stock pots worth of boiling water.

[adm]

My $0.02 is to clean the cornies after every use with boiling water and bleach - then rinse thoroughly. Take the thing apart and boil the posts and poppets every few uses too. Don't trust Norm to sanitise cornies before shipping - do them again when you get them!

As for transfer from the keg, just pop a bit of tubing onto the out tap of your keg so that it runs to the bottom of the corny, turn on the tap and let it flow. Once it's full, stick the lid on the corny and apply CO2. Let the pressure relief valve up a few times so the heavier than ir CO2 pushes any remaining air up and out of the cornie (purging).

For your stout, give it about 20 psi at 10C to carbonate. It will take a week or so.

Long term, try and find a source of "pub" CO2 as it will work out much, much cheaper than the widget bottles. I just got mine refilled tonight and it cost £13. It'll last me for 6 months or so, and I spray the old CO2 around pretty liberally (and carbonate a lot of beer)

[SiHoltye]

By nature stainless doesn't like chlorine so my advice would be if you do use bleach rinse it really well. It can cause pitting over time. My regime uses stainless friendly products. Assuming keg sloshed out of old beer or rinsed a bit if new, put in the keg half a cup of soda crystals and 5L of very warm water, using premium not fall apart kitchen towel to physically wipe clean the interior of the keg body (skinny arms), whilst all the detachables simmer in a pan of water. The long dip tube gets the soda solution and hot water run through it til I'm happy that's clean. Rinse keg and long dip tube well with cold water. Then reassemble the keg. Fill half way with tap water and 12mls of iodophor (see Brupaks), give a squirt of gas to seat the lid and leave keg right way up for 10mins then wrong way up for 10mins. NB. Allow a little squirt out of the long dip tube by depressing the poppet valve, that ensure not air in it rather the solution. Empty and done.

[lancsSteve]

Long term, try and find a source of "pub" CO2 as it will work out much, much cheaper than the widget bottles. I just got mine refilled tonight and it cost £13. It'll last me for 6 months or so, and I spray the old CO2 around pretty liberally (and carbonate a lot of beer)

Went with widget system as had heard of people having difficulty refilling norm's bottles... Will keep an eye out for pub system but hoping widgets will do the job for now and give me pressure reading - refills aren't cheap but not too prohibitive either IMHO.

Cheers all for infor on this - shall prob avoid bleach as know the stainless/bleach combo ain't so good long term. Is 'oxyclean' type stuff good? Have iodophor so will make that up as no-rinse finisher.

Steve

[dave.wilton]

Can anyone point to detailed instructions on how to remove the poppets Edit: Sorry I didn't men poppets I meant the posts? I looked at this once before but ended up giving up. I have never taken them off to clean but would obviously like to.

[mysterio]

Don't trust Norm to sanitise cornies before shipping

He usually sanitises mine with Pepsi cola syrup